
Hebrews 12:1 presents a vivid picture of a sports arena. There are the
stands, crowded with spectators, eyes fixed on the track where the run-
ners are taking off their warm-up suits and getting ready to start the race.
In this race, however, the readers—in fact, all Christians—are the run-
ners, not the onlookers. The tape stretches out in front of them, and be-
hind them stands Jesus, ready to award the victor's crown. But there is
not just one winner—in this race, everyone who finishes is a winner.
"Lay aside every weight."
The Greek athletes trained with weights
strapped to their bodies. Before they ran in a competition they would
remove these weights.
ILLUMINATION: "The weights that are here referred to are the evil hab-
its and practices we have formed by following our own natural disposi-
tions. Who are the witnesses? They are those spoken of in the previous
chapter—those who have breasted the evils and difficulties in their way,
and who in the name of the Lord have braced themselves successfully
against the opposing forces of evil. They were sustained and strengthened
and the Lord held them by His hand.
"There are other witnesses. All about us are those who are watching us
closely, to see how we who profess a belief in the truth conduct ourselves.
At all times and in all places, so far as possible, we must magnify the truth
before the world."—Ellen G. White Comments,
S.D.A. Bible Commen-
tory,
,vol.
7, p. 934.
THINK IT THROUGH: What "weights" encumbering me in my Christian
race do I need to lay aside?
What is "the sin which doth so easily beset us"? Heb. 12:1.
Notice other translations of Hebrews 12:1, 2:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let
us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus
the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God" (RSV).
"And what of ourselves? With all these witnesses to faith around us like
a cloud, we must throw off every encumbrance, every sin to which we
cling, and run with resolution the race for which we are entered, our eyes
fixed on Jesus, on whom faith depends from start to finish: Jesus who, for
the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him, endured the cross, making light
of its disgrace, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of
God" (NEB).
"Surrounded then as we are by these serried ranks of witnesses, let us
strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet,
and let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our eyes fixed on
Jesus the source and the goal of our faith. For he himself endured a cross
and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy he knew would follow
his suffering; and he is now seated at the right hand of God's throne"
(Phillips).
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